The cold also didn’t appear to affect the end product. Indeed, the beef was, in his estimation, pretty good.

Gibson — a beef producer and direct-market butcher from Moray, Scotland — was visiting the Canadian Prairies as part of a Nuffield Scholarship, investigating factors affecting meat quality in grass-fed and other beef production systems. Having visited different systems and eaten steaks across continents and hemispheres, the focus on quality and consistent genetics in Canada’s beef herd was among the reasons Canadian beef stands out — particularly in contrast to his native United Kingdom.

Defining meat eating quality

Meat eating quality is, for Gibson, a somewhat amorphous confluence of “intrinsic qualities” — flavour, tenderness, juiciness, overall palatability and nutrient density — as well as “extrinsic qualities” such as animal welfare, diet (grass-fed versus grain-fed), the aging process and other elements relating to consumer perception of the product.

The motivation behind his investigation stemmed from the observation that a shift to full grass-fed production on his own farm increased variability in the end product and subsequent dissatisfaction from his customers. That inconsistency, said Gibson, is reflective of a wider challenge with global beef production.

“In the United Kingdom, and indeed around the world, we produce beef in many ways to many standards: it could be a 48-month-old heifer, a 12-year-old cow, a 366-day-old bull or an 18-month-old stirk. It could be Highland, Aberdeen Angus, Limousin, Belgian Blue or Holstein. It could be grass-fed, grain-fed, indoor-reared, outdoor-reared. It could be, and is, anything and everything in between,” he wrote in his final scholarship report.

“We have a production system based on inconsistency of production, with the aim of producing a consistent product.”

In Gibson’s full grass-forage system, for example, meat quality can wane as an animal’s full nutritional requirements for positive, consistent growth are not met through their first winter. Unfortunately, subsequent compensatory growth narrows the window for achieving optimized tenderness, a key factor in consumer perception of eating quality.

“As more farming businesses go down (the 100 per cent grass-fed) route do we, as an industry, risk creating a product that satisfies consumer ideals, right up until they try to eat it and are left dissatisfied?” his report continues.

“Do we need a product that carries itself, that excites and potentially puts a chef out of a job? Or do all the wider factors that the consumer considers when making a purchase play a greater part than the physical properties of the product itself?”

How Canadian genetics and climate support consistency

Many factors can affect overwintering weight gain in full grass-pasture systems. Wet winters are a major issue in Gibson’s home region, as this pushes nutritional needs while preventing relaxation and rumination in the herd.

Keeping cattle “clean and dry” in cold winters, harsh as they are, is one factor Gibson observed supporting product consistency in Canadian beef. A focus on genetics and opportunity for scalability also play a role in offsetting the negative impact of climactic variability — something beef producers in countries such as Uruguay, for example, do not have to contend with.

“You’ve got tighter genetics and tighter breeds that you’re using, and that gives a greater consistency. And, as always, you guys benefit from scale,” said Gibson, speaking to Canadian Cattlemen in December 2025.

“Here, our production system can be 12-month-old bull beef. It can be a 40-month-old native heifer. It could be continental steer, and native highlander, and it all still comes under Scotch beef. That’s partially a result of having smaller farms. We’re all working off different systems, different genetics … Whereas, if it was just one farm covering the whole area, the consistency would be much greater, I suspect.”

Why grading systems matter for beef eating quality

The quality of a country’s meat grading system is another factor in meat eating quality, as well as consumer perception (of) that quality.

“The grading system (in the United Kingdom) is purely yield based. Anything, in my mind, is better than that,” said Gibson.

Grading by using marbling as a proxy for quality, as is done in Canada, the United States and Japan, is a step up. He considers Australia a gold standard, however, as the use of marbling and pH assessments, and considerations for how different cuts will eat in different cooking styles “allows the customer to really hone into what they want and what suits them.”

Grain-fed vs grass-fed debate varies by country

Consumer perceptions of animal welfare and environmental issues puts grass-fed beef on a comparative pedestal in the U.K. This stands in contrast to much of the rest of the world, where grain-derived products are more popular.

This observation tracks with analysis from Canada Beef. According to Mark Klassen, the organization’s executive vice-president, globally there is a “movement towards grain-fed product, with major exporters increasing the amount of grain-fed production and adopting grading systems that recognize marbling.”

In Canada, specifically, where most cattle are pasture-raised but finished on grain rations, the level of marbling has similarly increased.

“At the same time, the retail demand index has also increased, indicating that Canadians have an appreciation for higher-quality grades of beef, which are differentiated by marbling,” said Klassen.

Perceived health benefits of grass-fed beef do drive interest in North America, however, which is something producers can use to market their product. Though not a bad thing, Gibson said the differences in perception in places such as Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. are comparatively absent in Australia — at least at many major beef retailers — thanks in part to the country’s in-depth, consumer-oriented grading system. Indeed, it’s not uncommon for grass- and grain-fed beef to sit side-by-side in the butcher counter.

What consumers say they want versus what they buy

An overarching lesson from Gibson’s travels is that what constitutes “good” beef varies considerably across the globe.

“In the U.S., they would prize tenderness above all other things. Indeed, around the world, grain-fed would be rewarded more than the grass-fed equivalent,” he said.

“This is when my preconception was blown out of the water. Grass-fed is not the best … Grass-fed appeals to a privileged, predominantly European ideal. For many others around the world it has too much bite, it is too gamey and it’s too inconsistent.”

But what people purchase for their grill and table, and what the public says they want, also isn’t without contradiction.

Gibson’s early experience in the U.S. highlighted a public palate preferring beef that’s “bland to the point of being uneventful.” So, upon visiting a 100 per cent grass-forage operation in northern Michigan, he enquired whether the farm’s customers actually like the beef’s stronger flavour.

“No,” was his host’s answer, pointing to the fact that people buy their beef primarily as a health product.

Canada Beef research also highlights a domestic disconnect in ground meat and marbling.

“There is a tendency for consumers to indicate a visual preference for lower levels of marbling than they might prefer from an eating-quality point of view,” said Klassen.

“Likewise, the most popular type of ground beef in Canada (lean) is often lower in fat than a blinded taste preference would indicate.”

Back in the U.K, frozen beef is considered a lower-grade product. This stands in contrast to Canada, where frozen meat is a ubiquitous and widely accepted as separate from product quality.

Implementing lessons learned back in Scotland

Back in Moray, Gibson is sharing his findings with his local farming and butcher associations, while implementing changes on his own farm in pursuit of a more consistent, consumer-oriented product. This includes bringing in new genetics to speed up the tail end of finishing cattle, trying to drive energy requirements from the start, “and trying to back that up with data.” In the butcher shop, he’s also looking at different technologies to better age their beef.

Gibson’s final take-away after two years of travel and research — how much of a privilege it is to consider meat quality at all. For most people of the world, there is, in reality, little choice.

Gibson’s full report, “Enhanced Meat Eating Quality from 100 Per Cent Grass & Forage Systems”, is available on the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust’s website, and a presentation of his findings is available on the trust’s YouTube channel.

The post What makes good beef? Global study reveals surprising answers about meat quality appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

At the time, Chappell, who lives in the Comox Valley, realized many ranchers on Vancouver Island couldn’t purchase breeding stock at market price from the mainland because of the B.C. ferry system. He says they had also lost the only auction mart on the island around that time, so most Vancouver Island producers were trying to ship their cattle to the mainland.

Because of this, transportation and sales costs cut into their profits.

“When I would go around to meet people, or they would come to visit to talk bulls and bred heifers, they could never afford the better genetics,” Chappel says in an interview.

“So I had to find a way to help them get more money for their cattle. And I realized we weren’t going to get any more money for their cattle taking them to the commodity market of the mainland.”

He says Vancouver Island has a large beef-eating population, and he realized they could be successful direct-marketing beef. So, he decided to form an association to direct-market different rancher’s beef for a higher price.

Today, Island Pastures Beef is a group of around a dozen ranchers who direct-market their beef together. It is a commercial group, and the cattle are required to be grass-finished.

Chappell says when Island Pastures Beef started, they also included grain-finished cattle, but have switched to strictly grass-finished. Now, when people want to join the association, they must verify their cattle are grass-finished, and that their herd is strictly beef breeds.

Chappell says the association is successful because it created a market they didn’t previously have on the island.

“Even the cattle that weren’t going into our program, they were becoming a part of a market. And it really did… change things,” Chappell says.

“It is big enough to affect the economics for family farms. And that’s really all we were trying to do.”

On his own operation, Chappel says he’s seen a benefit from Island Pastures Beef, as well.

“I mean, we are receiving the highest price on Vancouver Island for live weight that the market would ever pay. We get a premium,” he says.

Chappell says they’ve also sold their beef as a premium product and not as a commodity product because it’s locally produced. He says costs of raising cattle on Vancouver Island are often more expensive than other agricultural regions. However, he says they’ve still had success despite their higher prices, with people from Vancouver Island wanting to buy local.

“People took a leap of faith.”

Island Pastures Beef can be found at places such as Country Grocer, a customer who has been with Island Pastures Beef from the beginning. They can also be found on Facebook.

The post Island Pastures Beef provides opportunity to Vancouver Island ranchers appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Kevin and Roxanne Ziola share a microphone as they field questions from the crowd about their ranch and how they use grazing to improve their beef, their soil and their livelihood.

Their priorities aren’t just their ranch, though, as is evident when one of their daughters runs onto the stage, straight into Roxanne’s arms. They’re family-oriented people, too.

“I want them out there with us when we do all this stuff,” Kevin says when talking about his family.

When Kevin took over the family farm from his father, it was a mixed operation. He and Roxanne decided to switch to ranching only based on their passion for the cattle industry, as well as the land they ranch on near Red Deer, Alta.

“We are in lowland,” Roxanne says. “To put crops in wouldn’t be feasible in some of our lowlands. So we would have to do cattle regardless, just to get that land utilized.”

Today they raise and direct market their grass-fed beef, as well as lamb and pork.

[VIDEO] Kevin Ziola on the ‘insurance policy’ he has for his cows in a drought year. (Video courtesy Ziola family)

Winter grazing

Several years back, Roxanne began suffering from health problems, including loss of taste and balance. In the end, she changed her diet, eating only grass-fed beef. Her health concerns and dietary changes pushed the Ziolas to focus on grass-finished cattle on their own operation. They also started shifting to holistic and regenerative practices.

“We’re always trying to improve. We haven’t used sprays or fertilizers for four or five years. And we haven’t worked anything up for that amount of time either,” Kevin says.

At first, the Ziolas started small, finishing one calf on grass. From there, they continued increasing the number of cattle they raised grass-fed, until it consisted of their whole herd.

Now, Iron Kreek Ranch is certified grass-fed and animal welfare approved by A Greener World (AGW).

“Our life kind of grew and grew with the grass-fed program, and we met more like-minded people, and they helped grow and mentor us,” Roxanne says.

Winter grazing is key to the Ziolas’ grass-fed operation. Cattle remain on pasture during the winter months and can be fed in a variety of ways, such as bale grazing, swath grazing or foraging for grass through the snow.

Roxanne says the first year of winter grazing was a big learning curve.

“We don’t have necessarily a shelter for them in all different areas. We had just put in watering systems. And throughout all of the years, we learn a little bit more and a little bit more.”

[VIDEO] Kevin Ziola on winter grazing and how snow helps preserve the quality of grass. (Video courtesy Ziola family)

To ease the transition to grass-fed, the Ziolas have taken advantage of programs offered by ALUS, a charitable organization that helps producers maintain ecosystem services on their land. Kevin says ALUS helped them reconstruct natural areas such as wetlands and grasslands on their land, at no financial cost to themselves.

“That program has helped us with all the watering systems, with the tumble wheels,” Kevin says. “We could not be doing what we’re doing on our ranch … without the ALUS program.”

The Ziolas’ cattle need to learn how to dig through the snow to forage for a legume crop left for winter grazing. Kevin says it’s important to him that his cattle work for him — not the other way around.

“You can’t just put them out there and expect them to be happy,” Kevin says. “We couldn’t buy animals into our herd … because they don’t know how to work. They don’t know how to eat through the winter and dig in the snow. And so, our cows teach their babies how to do that. And they’re really good at it. They’re very hardy.”

Foraging for food wasn’t something their cattle learned overnight, though. Kevin says it was a training process over the years.

“We went from feeding cows for 200 days of stored feed to swath grazing for most of the winter,” he says. “And then we would start to integrate in some grazing on grass longer and longer and longer and less swath grazing. To the point where last year was the first time that we took them all the way through winter.”

Although a lot of snow can make foraging hard for cattle, Kevin says snow is an important part of winter grazing, and the cattle will learn how to move it.

“Snow is important. We want winter with snow. It insulates things, makes things live,” he says.

For any producers interested in trying to teach their cattle to graze in the winter, Kevin recommends starting as early as possible. Starting earlier in the winter gives the cows a chance to learn to graze through snow before conditions become too difficult, he says.

“And then they start to realize that they can do it, and then you start to integrate harder snow,” he says.

Cattle and soil health

Kevin says winter grazing has improved their cattle’s health. Rotating their cattle from pasture to pasture constantly helps improve the cattle’s health by consistently being on the move. He says it’s rare for any of his cows to get foot rot.

He says he also doesn’t treat pinkeye or use ivermectin on his cattle. “They get through it on their own in short time,” he says, something he attributes to moving them regularly.

Roxanne attributes the health of their cattle to not having to live in or near their own feces.

“We’ve basically eradicated a lot of sickness because we keep moving,” she says. “So they’re not standing in their own cesspool.”

Since they’ve implemented winter grazing, constantly rotating the cattle, Kevin and Roxanne say they’ve noticed different types of insects in their fields. They’ve also seen a difference in the feces of the cattle, which break down into the land much faster.

The soil health of their operation is important to the Ziolas, so they have also previously brought in different types of insects to control certain weeds. Now, they are seeing that work pay off.

“We’ve definitely rehabilitated the land. The land is definitely waking up,” Roxanne says.

“Mother Nature is on our side. Why are we working so hard against Mother Nature when she’s trying to help us?”

The post Alberta ranching family teaches cattle to forage through snow appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

The Vancouver-based chain, which includes almost 1,000 restaurants across Canada, announced Monday it’s “making a commitment to exclusively source and serve 100 per cent Canadian grass-fed and -finished beef in its restaurants.”

The chain’s beef supply became the flashpoint of its new ingredient sourcing campaign in 2013, when it first declared all burgers it sells “are now made with beef that has been raised without any added steroids or hormones and contains no added preservatives or additives.”

The “Better Beef” campaign infuriated some Canadian ranchers and their supporters, many of whom have voiced displeasure across social media ever since.

The 2013 policy required A+W to start importing some of its beef from the U.S. and elsewhere, rather than buy strictly Canadian. Some critics were also concerned A+W’s campaign could mislead consumers about the safety or quality of Canada’s overall beef supply.

But the ingredients sourcing campaign — which has also since seen A+W tighten and promote its requirements for cheese, chicken, pork, eggs, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, root beer and coffee — has also indisputably worked.

The chain since 2013 has booked seven straight years of year-over-year same-store sales growth, and has seen a net expansion of over 200 stores.

Monday’s announcement won’t take effect at all restaurants immediately. Susan Senecal, CEO for A+W Food Services of Canada, said the company currently expects to begin its rollout at the end of May.

Asked in an interview how long the company expects the transition to 100 per cent Canadian grass-fed beef to take, she said “we know that we’re buying millions more pounds of Canadian beef this year over other previous years, but what we’re seeing is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm, so while we thought that the timeline might be longer rather than shorter, it feels like maybe it’ll accelerate and go faster than we think.”

A+W said it’s “working closely with the Canadian beef industry” on the move, recruiting packers including Cargill, JBS Canada, Meyer Canada, Beretta Farms and others in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, to “help grow the market for grass-fed beef in Canada.”

A+W described grass-fed as “an emerging market (and) wants to support it by paying a premium for grass-fed beef.”

The chain will be working “with many of our current suppliers” on a grass-fed, grass-finished beef supply, but will “also be able to expand our relationships to others who currently either just starting or transitioning their programs” to grass-fed, Senecal said.

The company, she said, has been working on the idea of a grass-fed beef supply for “a number of years now” as the chain has considered its role as a Canadian company and ways in which it can support “the efforts of a lot of ranchers who are such great stewards and environmentalists.”

In that, she said, the company is well suited to provide “a ready market and a path to market for operators who are working with the grass-fed beef idea.”

On a visit to Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, she said, company officials saw “a lot of interest among ranchers who in many cases were using a lot of these practices, but wanted a little bit more information or wanted a few more ideas about networks or places that they could call.”

Furthermore, she said, while working within the company’s current beef supply requirements, “many of our partners have said ‘Just knowing that you’re always out there buying as much as we can produce really provides incentive for us to continue with these practices, and expand our growth.'”

On the continuing education end, A+W noted it’s also partnering with universities and NGOs “to support ongoing efforts to provide ranchers with useful tools and resources to recognize their regenerative agriculture contributions.”

To that end, the company said it has already signed on as a sponsor for Regeneration Canada’s Living Soils Symposium next week in Montreal, and for a ‘Grasslands Conservation Incentives’ project being developed by Birds Canada.

As for the end product itself, Senecal said the company believes “that this beef profile will fit perfectly with our recipes.”

Among the packers who have signed on to supply grass-fed beef to the chain, Cargill is “able to meet our customer’s needs through existing resources and operations in our Canadian processing facilities” without any alterations required at its existing plants, a spokesperson said via email. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post A+W starts move to all-grass-fed, all-Canadian beef appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Some of what he saw there may provide food for thought to pasture managers here in Canada.

The first farm they visited was Criffel Station in the high country on the South Island near Wanaka owned by Jerry and Mandy Bell. Mandy, who is a veterinarian, is the farm manager. Criffel Station has 1,850 hectares and had been a sheep station since the 1850s. The Bells converted it to red deer production in 1993. Currently, they have 1,500 female Eastern European red deer grazing on the hills at their station.

Deer are not native to New Zealand but were imported from England and Scotland in the 19th century for recreational hunting in the Southern Alps and foothills. With no natural predators, the population quickly expanded and by the mid-1900s they had became a major pest on grazing and forest lands. The export of venison from wild deer started in the 1960s, turning a pest into an export market. Early deer farmers started netting live deer with helicopters and farming them. Today there are 2,000 deer farms raising one million deer per year, making New Zealand the world’s No. 1 source for farm-raised venison.

To utilize their extra forage production Mandy started finishing market lambs and grazing dairy heifers in addition to the deer. “Mandy has it all figured out on how much grass on a dry-matter basis it takes to finish sheep, dairy heifers or deer,” says Kyle.

At the time of Kyle’s visit, she had calculated the return for sheep at $0.23 per kg of dry matter fed, dairy heifers at $0.26 per kg of dry matter fed and deer $0.32 per kg of dry matter fed.

Criffel Station has three farming entities consisting of the hill breeding operation, venison finishing and stud operation. In their stud operation the Bells measure breeding values with the primary focus on venison growth rate to 12 months, utilizing DNA technology to produce top-quality breeding hinds and stags.

“There is a lot of irrigation going on in New Zealand, especially in the South Island. The arable land was basically all irrigated pasture. Corn was grown on the North Island for silage and most silage was stored in covered piles. In addition, chicory, fodder beet, turnips in a mixture, kale and fodder rape were grown.

“The pastures are broken after five years and seeded to annuals for one year then back to pasture. Red and white clover, perennial ryegrass and sometimes orchardgrass make up the pasture mix.”

Next they visited Te Mania Angus, one of the largest performance-tested Angus herds in New Zealand. Located about two hours north of Christchurch, the farm runs 850 registered Angus cows on 1,500 hectares that ranges from reasonably flat to very hilly.

They sell approximately 200 breeding bulls each year at two on-farm sales, while the meat is marketed through a pasture to plate, integrated, quality assurance, branded Angus beef program in partnership with a major national grocery store chain.

“Perennial pasture supplemented with a small acreage of annuals formed the basis of their feeding system. The cattle were moved every one to two days to a fresh paddock. The farm had a total of 220 paddocks in its grazing system.

“In other areas, there were a lot of five-acre paddocks with a water trough in each field. Three to four hundred cows would graze a paddock in a day before being moved to the next paddock.”

Irrigation systems were either K-line or centre pivots. The K-line units were like a glorified lawn sprinkler. They are low cost and sprinkle water 40 feet wide and since they are movable they could irrigate a strip 300 to 400 feet long. Irrigation water came from storage reservoirs in the mountains, rivers or wells. The water from the mountain reservoirs had the advantage of moving by gravity feed to the irrigated fields.

Kyle saw some dairy bulls being grown and finished on grass. When they were there it was dry and some producers were selling some of their herd to balance feed needs with pasture production.

“We visited the auction mart at Fielding on the North Island and saw a number of 400- to 450-kg bulls being sold to producers who had sufficient grass to finish these animals. Grass-fed bull beef lacks fat but the lean meat is exported and blended with fat trim in the importing countries” says Kyle.

“In general, beef costs the consumer about half what it costs in Canada. The New Zealand and Canadian dollar were about equal. Beef was $15 to $29 a kg, depending on the cut and, believe it or not, a half a pig’s head was $1.50 a kg. This was in a tourist area but in the main grocery store, prices were similar to the regular prices we see in Canada.”

On the North Island, he visited a farm running 260 Jersey cows on about 210 acres. They had 40 acres of corn silage and the remainder was in pasture. The cows’ production cycle was managed so that the farmer had one month with no milking so he and his family could have a holiday. “Not a bad idea,” adds Kyle.

There has been lots of expansion in the dairy industry that has pushed the sheep on to less desirable land resulting in a significant decline in the sheep population. But that may be slowing down with the recent declines in the country’s milk export markets, particularly China, the EU and Russia, in response to policy changes in all those countries.

There are no subsidies in New Zealand. It is free market enterprise environment, so in order to survive farmers there must adapt to changing market conditions.

There are 30 million sheep in New Zealand, down from the previous 60 million, and six million dairy cows.

“On one farm they were raising Wagu-dairy cross calves as part of a marketing group. The Wagu-Friesian cross gives a beef calf that they market as a grass-fed branded product. This market for a crossbred calf has appeal to some dairy producers” says Kyle.

“New Zealand’s climate and land makes forage and pasture production their best cropping option. Ninety per cent of the agricultural production is exported, which means they have to be competitive in world markets. Forage converted to animal protein is their lowest-cost and most profitable opportunity. Dairy production is focused on milk solids per hectare rather than production per cow.

All the operations he visited used a lot of paddocks, monitored their forage growth and measured the amount of dry matter being offered, as well as maintaining sufficient residue for good regrowth.

Annuals were grown to augment the pasture, especially during the fall and winter months.

“I was impressed with the high level of pasture management throughout the country and the optimum management of all pastures — I didn’t see any tall mature pastures in our travels.

“We can learn a lot from the New Zealanders about pasture management and making effective use of pasture as a primary feed source for livestock,” he concludes.

The post New Zealand through the eye of a pasture manager appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

It seemed like a natural next step to him.

His parents had become involved with holistic management in the late 1980s after taking a course with Don Campbell and Noel McNaughton. By 1990 they were out of grain farming altogether and strictly into grass farming.

That too was a natural evolution for this farm. There have been cattle on the Hoven farm since 1910 when it was homesteaded by his great-great-grandfather.

“We live on the western edge of civilization. If you go 30 miles to the west you hit mountains and bush all the way to the Pacific Ocean. We have good land, but it’s not great for grain. There is a lot of lowland, and muskeg in certain areas. Out of our 2,000 acres, there may be only about 400 to 500 acres that might be considered good for grain production. Grazing is the best use for most of our place,” says Hoven.

So, why go organic? “We had started direct marketing our beef and people were asking us if we were organic. We investigated to find out what was involved and discovered that we were already organic, except for the paperwork. It wasn’t any difference to become certified. After that we focused even more on direct marketing our beef.”

At one point the family had a butcher shop in Calgary, with three full-time and four part-time employees. “After 15 years of driving back and forth to Calgary, I was burned out. I was burning the candle on both ends. So we sold that side of the business and I was able to focus on the farm again,” he says.

“This allowed me to recharge my emotional batteries. Now we are getting back into direct marketing, utilizing what I learned and experienced, trying to incorporate that knowledge into a better model not only for me but also for my customers,” he says.

“I don’t know what kind of cattle my great-grandfather and grandfather had, but our herd now is primarily Angus-cross cows, with Hereford and some Black Welsh. I had a couple of Black Welsh bulls for a few years and now I am trying Galloway bulls — to get some hardier genetics into the mix. We want to keep a smaller-framed animal, and I prefer black just for the simple reason that black cattle stay warm easier in cold weather than lighter coloured cattle.” The black hair and hide absorb more of the sun’s warmth on a cold winter day.

“We are trying to improve our genetics. I recently read Johann Zietsman’s book, Man, Cattle and Veld, and it was very helpful. I knew from the earlier courses I’ve taken, and having seen what my parents had done in the past, why a smaller-framed animal makes more sense than a large one, but the way Johann walks the reader through it in his book and explains it, and shows the math and science behind it. I found that very inspiring.”

The cattle are moved daily. They run the cows and calves separately from the fattening herd — the animals that are finishing on grass for their direct marketing customers. “We also sell some of those animals to other farmers in the province who direct market organic grass-fed beef, so we actually have two markets now,” he says.

The cattle usually finish in 24 to 28 months. The biggest challenge for grass finishing is the same on their farm in central Alberta as for most western Canadian farmers — the cold winters. It’s hard to put much gain and fat on them during winter on nothing but grass and harvested forages.

“We have tried using good second-cutting alfalfa, but if we get a stretch of -20 C weather for a week or two, it’s like the animals’ metabolism changes and they just can’t put on more weight,” says Hoven. They needed something besides alfalfa to generate body heat and gain weight during cold weather.

Since it’s impossible to change the climate they chose to alter their management and finish the cattle a bit later on good spring grass. “During winter they might not be putting on any fat but their frame is growing. Once they hit the green grass they just boom and bloom,” he explains.

Direct marketing

With his second move into direct marketing, Hoven began looking for an easier way too get the product to his customers.

“After doing direct marketing for 20 years, I can see how customer perception of organic food and organic beef has changed. When I started selling organic beef I was laughed at because people could not believe anyone would want to grow or eat organic beef.”

Now that more people are seeking this product, his challenge is to market the beef in such a way that is quick and convenient for the customer. The obvious answer was the Internet. “People today are used to buying through Amazon where they simply click a button on line — it charges your credit card and the product miraculously shows up on your doorstep two days later,” he says.

“The way we used to do it, selling wholes and halves of beef, people placed an order and then had to wait three weeks to two months to get their meat. I don’t think that’s acceptable anymore in the 21st century. We are trying to work with our processor using Internet tools so people can order online — and then very quickly, within a couple days, the meat shows up on their doorstep.”

Many people in the city have a choice of time or money, and generally think they have more money than time. They don’t want to wait for something they want.

“Ease of purchase is also important,” notes Hoven. It only takes one barrier to have someone void the sale.

“If I can eliminate that wait, it puts my farm in a class by itself in terms of marketing and distribution,” he says.

“We are also selling chickens this year, and a few pigs. Another project is an organic vegetable garden. Our son is home from college so this is his project. We’re attending two markets, focusing on selling the vegetables, but also connecting with people to sell the beef — since primarily we are a grass ranch,” he explains. Interest in one product opens doors for the others.

Several of his older children are excited about being involved with the marketing and being at the market.

Grazing management

“We try to maximize the regrowth period in our pastures. We have a nasty little weed called tall buttercup and if recovery period is too short, this weed comes in to take over the field. But if you provide enough recovery time, the grass will outcompete and tall buttercup won’t become a problem.”

All the creek beds were fenced off years ago but they still grazed fairly close to the creek banks until they ran into this problem with tall buttercup. So they moved the fences farther away from the creek, moved the animals out, and within a couple years the weed disappeared. The grass choked it out. “Now we graze those creek areas, but only occasionally,” he explains. We keep them as reserve pastures so they might get grazed only once every two or three years.” They need to be grazed, but they also need some protection.

They don’t use any chemical weed control on the farm. Instead they manage the weeds through grazing, by increasing the stock density and recovery periods to improve grass growth and choke out the weeds. Hoven claims it is as effective as spraying.

“It takes a leap of faith, and it’s a totally new way of thinking for many people. They can’t get out of their existing paradigm.”

The same thinking applies to animal health products. “We are certified organic, so we don’t use antibiotics very often in our cattle. If we have a sick one, we treat that animal, but we have very few sick animals. One problem is having to spend $100 on a bottle of antibiotics that we’ll only use once. We may not need any of it again for a year or two and by then it may have expired!” he says.

Tim and Lori have been married 23 years and have eight children: Aiden (21), Liam (19), Therese (17), Joseph (15), Francis (13), Dominic (9), Monica (7), and Mathias (5). “They enjoy working with the farm and livestock. It’s interesting to observe their different skills and talents,” says Hoven.

“We feel strongly about the importance of family. We feel it is important for our children to live in a situation where they can work with their parents, and also get to live and work with their grandparents. There is another generation of wisdom that they can learn from, and form adult relationships with. Many young people today are isolated from anyone other than their own age group, which gives them a very limited world view.” Many opportunities are missed for learning things that adults can teach them.

They home school their kids and put extra effort into educating them in the belief that this strengthens the family bond while enabling them to build on their natural gifts and talents and become experts in those fields.

The post Direct marketing grass-fed beef is a family business appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Can I do that on grass?
By Jack Kyle, Ontario forage specialist

With increased interest in grass-fed beef, people ask if it is possible to fatten cattle on pasture without grain supplementation. The answer is yes, with a few conditions. When grass finishing animals remember that the market is generally not looking for as much fat cover as normally found on grain-finished animals. If you are not looking to finish cattle but rather achieve maximum growth on pasture the same pasture management principles will apply.

First and foremost, what is the quality of the pasture? To achieve optimum production you need lots of good-quality pasture. However, unlike with stored forages and grains, producers often don’t have an accurate quality assessment of their pastures. This is because pastures grow and are utilized directly by the animal without ever being formally harvested or analyzed.

Stored forage and grains have a known quality and energy level — either from feed analysis or from a long consistent history of grading standards and nutritional analysis. Although it is often produced on farm, you still have a good indicator of the feed quality, especially in the case of grains.

With pastures, there is a wide range in species makeup, including any number of mixtures of legumes and grasses, with each species having a different feeding value. There is also the maturity factor — pastures may range from lush and vegetative to those which are mature and woody. Obviously, the lush and vegetative pastures will provide much higher-quality feed, and you will have far greater success finishing cattle on this than a mature, woody pasture. This range in quality has a tremendous effect on animal performance, especially with livestock requiring more than a maintenance ration.

In a research project conducted at the Ontario Agricultural College in the 1960s, forage quality at various stages of growth was determined. For alfalfa, the range was from a high of 20.8 per cent CP (crude protein) and 70.6 per cent IVD (in vitro digestibility) in the younger plants to a low of 15.6 per cent CP and 60.1 per cent IVD in the more mature plants. For orchardgrass, the protein ranged from 13.3 per cent to 6.6 per cent and digestibility ranged from 74.7 to 51.8 per cent, showing a decrease in value as the plant matured. Timothy and brome grass showed similar declines in quality as orchardgrass.

When the digestibility of forage decreases, the intake also declines. This comes as a double hit because the animals are eating less of a lower-quality feed, resulting in poor performance. To finish well, cattle will need high intakes of quality forage. If pastures are managed to be grazed when the plants are in the vegetative state, with maximum animal intake, excellent growth and production results are achievable.

The second condition required to successfully finish on pasture is good pasture management. How do you manage your pastures and your grazing to achieve these results? Staging the pastures to create a wedge of forage with the last pasture grazed being the thin edge of the wedge and the next pasture to be grazed is the thick end of the wedge. If animals are moved every one to two days they will always have fresh high-quality forage available that will meet the nutritional requirements for excellent growth. To support pasture finishing, pastures should be maintained with forage grasses in the boot stage and legumes in late-bud to early-flower stages. By maintaining and monitoring this “wedge” you will have the opportunity to adjust your grazing program to maintain quality pasture from May through to October.

Take the example of a 12-paddock system. The animals will start in paddock one and by the time they get to paddock 12, the first one will have regrown to provide abundant high-quality forage.

Animals come out of paddock 12 (the thin end of the wedge) when the forage is sufficiently grazed and moved into paddock one (the thick end of the wedge) where there is ample supply. Animals will rotate through the 12 paddocks so that while one is being grazed the other 11 are in a state of regrowth. Ideally, by the time animals have grazed through paddocks one to 11, and are ready to be back in paddock 12, it will have regrown enough to be the thick end of the wedge again.

Perennial pastures have minimal input costs and very low maintenance cost when compared to annual crops, stored forage or grain crops. By maintaining quality pasture throughout the grazing season, you create the lowest-cost feeding program, while still achieving gains comparable to any other feeding program. It is the dollars you have left that determine your profitability, not the gross revenue. Well-managed pastures are an opportunity to have a profitable bottom line and access a niche but growing market for grass-fed beef.

Health

Virtual on-farm necropsy hunts out disease

Researchers believe the next epidemic or health concern for the cattle industry may well be in the story told by the animals that die on the farm. Therefore, the ability to collect relevant and timely information and samples from an animal that has died is crucial to making an accurate diagnosis. But this process can be costly and may not be deemed necessary by the animal owner.

For animal health practitioners, cutting down necropsy costs and finding new tools for producers and veterinarians to promote the sharing of knowledge and learning opportunities on cattle diseases has always been the challenge to overcome.

That’s where the use of imaging technology to make a diagnosis “at a distance” comes in. Over the years, its use has increased in many applications such as feedlots, wildlife monitoring and parasitism.

However, the methodology of making a diagnosis “at a distance” by a diagnostician has never been formally compared to making a necropsy diagnosis over the Internet.

But Dr. Eugene Janzen at the University of Calgary believes a necropsy diagnosis over the Internet holds potential in improving intelligence on animal health.

Currently, he is involved in an innovative research trial on “virtual” long distance diagnosis. With support from the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA), Dr. Janzen’s research aims to eventually advance the concept of “on-site” diagnosis of cattle cadavers. This project will use a complete necropsy examination in a diagnostic laboratory as the “gold standard” and compare that to a diagnosis made by using the images of that necropsy viewed by a “blind panel” of veterinarians with different levels of experience and expertise.

The process involves the active participation of cattle producers and their employees in the selection process. For instance, when an animal of interest dies, the producer or employee will notify the research group at the University of Calgary faculty of veterinary medicine (UCVM). A dedicated animal health technologist (AHT) will proceed to the property, collect the cadaver and submit it to the diagnostic laboratory at the UCVM. The duty pathologist will examine the animal at necropsy; the AHT will take a standard set of images of that necropsy and present them to the panel. The objective is to measure the agreement between the “gold standard” necropsy done, “no holds barred” by the pathologist and compare that to the accuracy of examining images alone.

Ultimately, it is envisaged that producers or their designates, under instruction from their own veterinarian, will dissect the cadaver, take photographs and email the images to the herd veterinarian who may forward them to a designated diagnostician at a veterinary facility. The involvement of a veterinarian is to instruct the producer group thereby maintaining the integrity of the veterinary client-patient relationship.

Dr. Janzen believes this virtual diagnostic process will reduce the cost of animal necropsy significantly. A producer will now spend $20 to $50 per case as opposed to $300 to $500.

“The key aspect of this project is that it will advance the veterinary field by providing new tools to veterinarians and cattle producers. The project will advance knowledge sharing and learning opportunities,” he said.

In addition, Dr. Janzen says the convenience of a reduced cost will enable cattle producers to conduct more necropsies, which translates to more knowledge and information about the prevalence of animal diseases.

“This will also help producers to manage the disease issue more appropriately,” he says.

“You may need to know why that animal died to prevent others in your herd from being affected, says Janzen. “Some reasons such as foot-and-mouth disease would have severe implications to your national industry.”

The Alberta Veterinary Medical Association (ABVMA) says Dr. Janzen’s research holds potential to improve animal health and to improve producer-veterinarian contact.

“Information collected by necropsy examination is an essential piece of the data that must be collected to ensure the health of the individual herd. Gathering and reviewing this information also serves to support surveillance and is essential in managing the entire animal population of the province,” says Dr. Duane Landals, senior adviser with the ABVMA.

Health

VBP animal care module moving ahead

The new animal care module to be added to Canada’s established Verified Beef Production (VBP) on-farm food safety program will include a formal approach to assessing animal care for self-evaluation and, if the producer chooses, third-party audits to verify that beef cattle code of practice animal care requirements are being met.

VBP is a free and voluntary program offered by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) for all beef production sectors. Funding was secured late last year to develop modules for animal care, environmental stewardship and biosecurity over the next three to four years.

Ryder Lee, CCA’s manager of federal, provincial relations, says the animal care technical package was formed in August and is set to move forward with writing the program. The next step will be to test it on beef operations to make sure it’s workable and meets the intended purpose before it is finalized.

The committee will follow the Animal Care Assessment Framework developed by the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) starting back in 2007. The process was tested by the Dairy Farmers of Canada in 2012 before the framework was finalized and released earlier this year.

The framework is a species-neutral document that lays out six steps for designing a transparent, credible animal care assessment program consistent with the HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) approach and the relevant code of practice requirements.

It’s then up to the national commodity or specialized industry group that wants to develop an assessment program or revise an existing program using the framework’s process to flush out the details. The group needs to contact the NFACC, designate a program co-ordinator to take the lead, put together a well-rounded program development team that includes knowledgeable stakeholders as outlined in the framework, develop program content for the specific commodity, test the draft program on farms (optional, but strongly recommended), and report to NFACC at various stages of program development.

Developing program content is a complex task that must follow certain principles related to use of code-of-practice requirements, establishing performance targets or critical levels, make use of three types of assessment measures and define sampling procedures.

If NFACC deems that the process has been followed, it will support the program and recognize the group’s use of the framework on the NFACC website.

The framework document is available under the resources tab on the NFACC website at www.nfacc.ca.

VBP’s manual and checklist for the food safety program, which was also developed using international HACCP guidelines, is an example of what an assessment program looks like. It and information about how to participate are online at www.verifiedbeef.org.

Trade

Suspend COOL if WTO rules against U.S., says coalition

Following a report that says the World Trade Organization has sided with Canada and Mexico in the dispute over U.S. country-of-origin labelling rules, a coalition of American food and agriculture organizations is urging Congress and U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack to immediately suspend COOL if the WTO rules against the U.S.

Although the ruling had not yet been made public, a report in the Wall Street Journal said the WTO has determined the U.S. is not complying with its international trade obligations.

The decision was shared confidentially with the governments for all three countries involved in the trade dispute in early July. It’s now expected the ruling will be made public this month.

Speaking on behalf of the COOL Reform Coalition, the U.S. National Corn Growers Association issued a statement saying suspending COOL would “neither prejudge the pending WTO litigation on this matter nor allow an ongoing period of knowing violation of international trade obligations.”

The Canadian cattle and hog industries say COOL is costing producers north of the border around $1 billion per year.

While the Canadian government has already published a list of U.S. products that could face retaliatory tariffs, a WTO compliance panel ruling against the U.S. would likely be appealed. If the appeal decision is also in Canada’s favour, there’s a possibility those retaliatory tariffs could be implemented by the middle of 2015.

Management

Alternative phosphorus-based manure applications evaluated

Alberta feedlot operators are interested in knowing how a potential shift to phosphorus-based manure application-rate regulations or guidelines will affect their operational costs and income.

To examine these questions Dr. Elwin Smith, a bioeconomist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge evaluated the impact of different manure application rates on the returns of a medium-size beef feedlot in southern Alberta.

The current practice in Alberta is to base manure applications on crop-available nitrogen, which is the first limiting nutrient for most Alberta crops. However, by applying manure based on nitrogen, other nutrients such as phosphorus may be applied at rates that exceed plant nutrient requirements. Long term this can contribute to phosphorus buildup in surface soils and surface water from run-off raising a number of environmental concerns. The Alberta Nutrient Management Planning Guide states that: “Depending on the natural risk (e.g. presence of neighbouring water bodies, high soil test phosphorus)… it may be advisable to consider basing (manure) application on phosphorus recommendations.”

Smith’s study looked at the impact of such a regulatory change by constructing an economic model to compare costs and returns when manure application rates are based on annual crop nitrogen limits or annual phosphorus requirements.

“We also looked at the case of applying manure at three times the annual phosphorus requirement but applied every third year on a rotational basis to one-third of the land base,” says Smith.

This high rotational rate was based on the work of Dr. Jim Miller with AAFC in Lethbridge. When he rotationally applied manure at three times annual phosphorus requirements, phosphorus concentrations in the run-off were 50 to 94 per cent lower than when the application rate matched the crop’s annual nitrogen requirements.

“Our findings suggested no environmental benefit for annual phosphorus-based manure application over once-every-three-year phosphorus-based manure application with respect to phosphorus and nitrogen in run-off, says Miller. “However, manure application at three times the phosphorus crop requirement sometimes caused a spike in total phosphorus in run-off the year of application.”

“Basically, in the year after manure application, there is a higher risk of potential environmental impact, such as phosphorus moving into water bodies,” he concludes.

“Similar nitrogen concentrations in run-off for the phosphorus- and nitrogen-based manure application trials indicated that shifting to a phosphorus-based manure application would not significantly influence nitrogen in run-off.”

The economic analysis was based on a 10,000-head feedlot with access to 39 quarter sections of cropland within 12 kilometers of the feedlot. Manure application costs were set at $2.67/tonne for loading, $0.70 for transport and $1.64 for application. Cropping costs were analysed for irrigated and dryland conditions in southern Alberta.

The model also factored in supplemental inorganic fertilizer costs because a phosphorus-based manure application strategy requires supplemental nitrogen to meet crop requirements.

Key findings

Annual applications based on crop phosphorus requirements had substantially higher costs than the other two options examined because the manure had to be transported farther and applied over more acres at a low rate. Returns were reduced by $7.50/head compared to annual applications based on crop nitrogen requirements. Hauling costs alone were 65 per cent higher (from $13.76 to $22.46/head); transport and application costs added another $10.12. These extra costs were partially offset by savings in fertilizer purchases (77 per cent less phosphorus and four per cent less nitrogen).

Applying manure every third year at three times the phosphorus requirement to a third of the acres was a cheaper alternative than annual applications based on phosphorus levels but still reduced the return per head to the feedlot by $1.70 compared to annual applications based on nitrogen requirements.

“The Provincial Nutrient Management Planning Guide identifies scenarios where manure application rates based on crop phosphorus recommendations makes sense,” says Smith. “Based on our economic study, the application of manure to targeted fields once every third year, and based on three-year crop phosphorus requirements, appears to be a reasonably sound alternative manure application strategy. And Dr. Miller’s work appears to confirm that it is a reasonably sound environmental strategy, as well. ”

Markets

Heavy feeder exports will continue — analyst

Market analyst Kevin Grier with the George Morris Centre in Guelph doesn’t foresee any significant let-up in the flow of western feeder cattle to the U.S. this fall, particularly from Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Writing in the August 25 issue of his Canadian Cattle Buyer newsletter, he says one of the most interesting developments over the past year is the flow of feeder cattle off the eastern Prairies.

From July 2013 to June 2014, 390,000 western feeders were shipped to U.S. feedlots in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Washington. “The big increases have been to Nebraska and Colorado. Numbers to Washington are down notably,” he says.

Most of those cattle will end up being fed for slaughter at the Tyson plant in Lexington, Nebraska which has a capacity of 4,800 head per day.

“The important point, however, is whether or not the flow is going to continue at year-ago levels this fall. The answer is yes it will.

“First of all and most importantly, the western grain advantage has not only eroded but is likely gone. Beyond the grain advantage there are other factors that will pull cattle south, even beyond the fact that numbers are short in the U.S. relative to Canada.”

The other factor is related to country-of-origin labelling. The Lexington facility takes “B” cattle and as such has a need for a critical mass of this type of cattle.

“Tyson is likely supportive if not outright encouraging of Nebraska and Colorado feeders pulling cattle out of Canada. In addition while the feeder cattle are marketed and procured in a variety of ways there are steady relationships developed with established roles regarding the trade.”

Finally, he says, U.S. corporate feedlots and their bankers are more able to sustain the exceptional levels of capital and risk that have evolved in the beef industry over the last few years.

“The bottom line is that numbers are going to continue to flow south off the Prairies in material numbers. While numbers have always flowed, the volumes constitute a new form of competition which will impact not only the feeder basis but also the fed basis.”

The post Can cattle be “fattened up” on pasture without grain supplementation? appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Richard and Kristy-layne Carr have plenty of both. Not bound by tradition, they went into business with 30 cows on a quarter of land near Marchand, Man., and an open mind about what many established farmers viewed as new ways a decade ago.

“We started the farm in the midst of BSE, so we learned right from the start how to keep inputs low and still keep quality high,” says Richard. “We love the lifestyle and outdoor work, but it’s a long road and there have also been hours and hours spent in front of a calculator doing the math.”

The two bring complimentary skills to their business, Rich Lane Farms. Kristy-layne grew up on a beef farm, studied animal and range science and managed the Seine-Rat River Conservation District. Richard has strong ties to the dairy industry going back to his early childhood, a longtime involvement in dairy 4-H and employment in the industry. He is currently a sales and nutrition consultant for EMF Nutrition.

Richard always figured his destiny was to become a dairy farmer so their original plan was to raise a few cattle, pigs and chickens to direct market grass-fed meat while starting a small dairy operation.

“I thought I had good stockmanship skills, but I soon learned the beef side is a whole different story when I got chased by a cow at calving. I didn’t look back then and we haven’t looked back since. This is the quality of life we want,” he says.

Getting into beef required far less capital expense than dairy, with a more flexible time commitment, and a structure that gives them room to grow, he says.

They snagged the opportunity to expand four years ago when a farm with a developed yard site including livestock facilities and 1,000 acres came up for sale. They now run 200 cows and feel there’s still room for more.

“We’d feel comfortable with 250 cows on the current land base, but the sky’s the limit because we could rent private pasture, use community pasture, or find custom graziers with management practices similar to ours,” he says. “It’s a good time to expand.”

Most of their calves are sold at weaning through a local auction market, but they keep about 50 back for their grass-fed meat business. It started with a simple Kijiji ad that garnered business from Winnipeg and they still make the hour-plus trip into the city every couple of weeks to deliver orders. Lacoste Garden Center retails their meat as well.

Local demand is really taking off now with their participation in the Pine Ridge Hollow Farmers Market during the summer months and keen interest from two local food-buying co-ops in Steinbach, where their products also sell through Good ’n Natural and Nature’s Pasta.

The meats are processed at provincially inspected plants and cut, wrapped and frozen in clear vacuum packaging by Earl’s Meat Market in Steinbach and Country Style Meats in New Bothwell.

“I love direct marketing because I’m a big promoter of agriculture. I like telling a good story — our story. If you sell your confidence, right there, customers are drawn to you,” he says. “The farmers’ market is a great place to tell people what we do and address misconceptions.”

Last year they participated in Manitoba Agriculture’s annual Open Farm Day for the first time and plan to be on the list again this year. Approximately 60 farms signed up to showcase what they do by offering on-farm activities of interest to the general public. Videos and maps from participating farms are posted on the Open Farm Day website well ahead of time. Oftentimes groups organize tour buses to stop at several farms, but lots of families venture out on their own to see for themselves what farming is all about.

More than 100 people from the area and beyond showed up at Rich Lane Farms where they were treated to pasture tours on a horse-drawn wagon and a meal of local food with proceeds donated to a local charity.

“It was the first time some people had seen a real cow, pig or chicken,” Carr says. “The beef industry has the advantage of being more transparent because cattle are raised out in the open, so most people have seen cows in pastures, but lots had never seen one up close.”

Production cycle includes stewardship

“We are big believers that vaccinating and introducing hay to calves at least a month before weaning, so they know what hay and water bowls are about, reduces stress at weaning,” he explains.

They’re flexible on the weaning date going year by year by taking weather and market conditions into consideration. Last winter, they weaned on the early side in December because their cow herd is fairly young. Looking back at the extremely cold winter, it was a wise move.

They’re not so flexible when it comes to their breeding schedule. Calving starts April 20 and runs 60 days.

The core herd is Beefbooster with some Angus and Simmental crosses and a sprinkling of other breeds. They purchase Red and Black Angus bulls developed on high-forage diets.

This spring they brought in their first AI-sired calves. It’s a skill he picked up working in the dairy industry where he saw the advantage of using superior, proven genetics. On the beef side, he sees the added advantage of having a large number of uniform calves from one sire on the ground in short order that will package up nicely at weaning. Using a fixed-time protocol with breeding on the third day, the conception rate was 65 per cent for the 50 cows in the program.

Calving happens on the high side of the home half-section and the pairs are trailered to summer pasture three miles away.

The pastures are fenced in 40-acre squares to accommodate drag line applications of hog manure. It’s a great amendment for their light sandy soil and really boosts production on their native and quack grass pastures.

They’ve adopted rotational grazing over time using temporary cross-fencing, but feel there’s still some tweaking to do to help the pastures reach their full potential.

In talking about being selected as Manitoba Beef Producers’ representative to TESA (the environmental stewardship award, to be presented at the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association’s semi-annual meeting in Prince Edward Island in August), Carr says a stewardship standout for them has been the success of bale grazing.

They get lots of strange looks and questions over it because bale grazing isn’t very common in their area. “It’s not the lazy way, it’s the smarter way,” he comments. “The cows get fed, it improves the land and it reduces yardage costs of hauling bales to the cows, rather then hauling the manure out.”

The results are noticeable the first growing season after bale grazing, especially in dry years, when brown turns to green where the bales had been because the litter traps more moisture.

They buy hay from a neighbour who places it in groups around the wintering site as it’s delivered in October. At first they sectioned off three days’ worth of feed at a time. Now it’s a week. He’s talked to others who have stretched it to a month’s supply and say the cows clean up the hay just as well.

If it’s decent-quality hay, they’ll clean it up better, he says, adding that it took a few years to get his head around the idea that he didn’t have to harrow the residue to let the grass grow through.

They wouldn’t go back to wintering cows any other way, but circumstances forced their hand in 2012, when it was very dry and the limited hay supply had to be reserved for animals in their grass-fed program.

The rest of the herd received pellets and straw fed with a shredder every day. Not only was it a very expensive way to feed, he says, but there’s something about hay bales that the substitute ration couldn’t match, even though it balanced out on paper.

Summer plans call for installing a year-round solar-powered water bowl out in the pasture. This will let them move the bale grazing site around to target more areas with poor soil.

They’re also looking forward to starting a water retention project in co-operation with the Seine-Rat River Conservation District. The idea is to filter run-off nutrients from their pasture before the water reaches the spring creek that eventually drains into the Seine River.

The Carrs see lots of opportunity in beef and room for small farms of all kinds because they have the resilience to flex with time and circumstances.

Two important take-away messages from the recent holistic management course led by Bev and Don Campbell were to plan for profit from the start and to write goals into your farm plan. If quality of life is a goal, family time has to be part of the farm plan and even more so now with Slade, five, Elora, three, and twins Nate and Isabel, a year old this summer. They want their family to grow up seeing the good side of agriculture with memories of farm life as positive as those they had as children that ultimately led to where they are today.

The post Direct-marketed grass-fed beef fuelled their expansion appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Travelling from the sea coast towards the middle of Maui, we pass mile after mile of sugar cane, the main agriculture crop grown on the island. The huge Dole pineapple fields are long gone to Costa Rica, the Philippines and Indonesia due to high water, land and labour costs. We pass all sorts of bicyclers coasting down the road, part of the sunrise bike tour coming down from the mountain top several thousand feet above us. The winding road soon arrives at the wide-open grass pastures of the Haleakala Ranch.

Livestock manager Greg Friel explains “The Haleakala Ranch encompasses several microclimates and terrains including high-altitude pine and native forest, temperate pasture land, subtropical rain forest and dry or desert-type rangeland on the leeward coastal side of the ranch. The ranch remains as one of the largest ranches in Hawaii.”

“I’m not sure what grasses were seeded when, but all of the pasture grasses were introduced to Hawaii. The only two mammals that are native to Hawaii are the bat and the seal. All of the native grasses evolved without grazing pressure but when the British explorers released goats, sheep, cattle and horses, the unmanaged animals grazed out the native forages into isolated pockets. I think that the initial forages that were imported were brought in from Africa and Australia. Some of the lower elevation forages are Green Panic, Buffel, Pangola, Guinea grass, Glycine and Desmodium legumes, and Leucaena, a shrub legume. Above 2,000 feet you have Kikuyu, Yorkshire fog, Bermuda, Rhodes Grass Trefoil, Plantain and various clovers.”

“Our rainy season runs from November through May. Below 2,000 feet elevation, it is warm enough that we get grass growth whenever we have moisture. Our herd in the lower country starts calving right around Christmas and their calving period is 60 days. Our herd on the mountain runs from 2,500 up to 6,500 feet and in this country, the grass doesn’t start growing until mid-April at 2,500 and about a week later for every 1,000 feet rise in elevation.”

• More from the Canadian Cattlemen: You can learn a lot about grazing yearlings from a dairy man

Except for the last three years of this past drought, the ranch has been finishing and marketing all its animals on Maui. In 2011 and 2012, the fourth and fifth year of the drought, they had to sell their stockers to mainland buyers in order to move the cow herds up into the stocker country where there was available grazing.

“We have been Red and Black Angus since 1996 and I have dropped the Black Angus in the past couple of years. We have had some problems during the spring with some of the Black Angus not shedding their winter hair, which gave them problems going into summer. The Red Angus genetics that I used doesn’t have this problem. We AI all of the replacement heifers, and during 2013 we started to AI about 25 per cent of the heifers to a Tuli bull,” Friel adds.

The ranch has been able to reduce its dependency on herbicides for weed control on the grazing lands with multi-species grazing management. Goats and sheep grazing alongside the cows take out invasive species not utilized by the cows. They figure five to six goats basically equals one grazing animal.

Over the years the Haleakala ranch has played a key land management and conservation role on Maui. Isolated island ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to damage by invasive plants and feral goats, pigs and deer. The ranch has developed a comprehensive invasive species management plan and conservation initiatives involving watershed management, game fencing, rare plant protection, riparian corridor restoration and native bird propagation facilities.

Other income streams are generated by eco-tourism activities such as zip lining, hiking, horseback riding and a lavender farm.

“We have been selecting for moderately framed cows for about six to eight years,” says Friel. “We aren’t where we want to be quite yet. Our steers are finished at 1,050 to 1,100 pounds and our heifers at 950 to 1,000. Their entire diet is grass and legumes with a mineral supplement, and we market all our cattle as grass-fed to various stores and restaurants on Maui.”

Elli Funakoshi is with Maui Cattle Company that markets grass-finished beef from four island ranches, Hana, Haleakala, Ulupalakua and Kaupo. Its brand reads: Maui Cattle Company Free Range 100% Grass-Fed Beef, Born and Grazed in Hawaii.  “We sell our chilled beef in retail stores such as all the Long grocery stores on Maui,’ he says. “Our biggest seller is our ground beef but our steaks sell as well. We stopped processing grain-fed cattle in 2011 and went to 100 per cent grass fed since.”

Most of their beef is sold to retailers and restaurants on Maui but they do supply a few restaurants on Oahu.

“Previously, 75 per cent of Maui’s cattle were shipped to the U.S. mainland, while islanders consumed U.S. beef imported from the mainland. We realized this made no sense and the Maui Cattle Company was created with the knowledge that the distance between plate and pasture needed to be shortened, and locally grown products are vital to our island economy.  Our goal is to keep Maui’s livestock on the island, establish a sustainable ranching industry and deliver premium products locally.”

The Hawaiian cattle industry has come a long way since Captain George Vancouver gave four black Longhorn cows as a gift to King Kamehameha I back in 1793. Two bulls didn’t make the difficult trip and the next year Captain Vancouver brought the king a second gift of seven cows, one mature bull and two bull calves.

Vancouver convinced the king to put a “kapu” or taboo on killing the cattle so that the cattle would provide a future food supply for his people who had been ravaged by war for many years.

The Longhorns took to the Hawaiian climate and by the mid-1800s the several cows and three bulls grew into a wild herd of 35,000 to 40,000 cattle that trampled crops, endangered people and severely overgrazed island grasslands.

Eventually the cattle had to be rounded up and Spanish-Mexican cowboys or vaqueros were brought from California to teach the Hawaiian’s how to rope and ride. The Hawaiian cowboys were called Paniolos as this was the closest to the Spanish word in the Hawaiian language.

By the late 1800s and early 1900s the Hawaiian cattle industry was flourishing. When it came time to market the cattle, the Paniolas drove the stock down to the harbour, lassoed and dragged them out into the surf, and tied them by their long horns to the side of the long boats. The sailors then rowed the boats towing the cattle out to the awaiting ships where they were hoisted aboard using belly slings and block and tackle. The Hawaiian cattle industry has certainly come a long way since those times.

Duane McCartney is a retired forage beef systems research scientist from Lacombe, Alta.

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The key is quality, which he describes as job No. 1.

“I’ve almost never had a consumer tell me, Jim, your rib-eye steak at $17.99 a pound — twice what it’s worth at Safeway — is too bloody expensive and I won’t eat it,” said Lintott, president of the 10-member Manitoba Grass-Fed Beef Association.

At his farmers’ market table, retail customers regularly come to him with a fistful of $100 bills and buy a pile of premium cuts to impress their guests at an upcoming weekend feast.

“That’s the market that’s there. Build that market with a high-quality product and give them bragging rights. Do not sell them a rib-eye steak for $11 a pound. It’s worth $20,” said Lintott, in a presentation at Ag Days hosted by the Manitoba Organic Alliance.

Wayne McDonald, who runs McDonald Farm near Cartwright, direct markets all of the grass-only production from his Galloway-Angus-cross herd of 80 head through an e-commerce-enabled website that also offers pasture pork and lamb.

“The beef is by far the easiest one to sell in terms of customer demand,” said McDonald.

Inspected

His cows are small framed, and carcass weights at 18-24 months average around 450-500 pounds. A provincially inspected abattoir is just 20 minutes away from the farm in Killarney.

The website, which uses a software program called Joomla that is available for free downloading online, is key to his marketing strategy, because it means his store is open 24-7 for customers.

Instead of hiring a webmaster, he is able to update pictures, prices and do inventory tracking himself because the software is very user friendly.

It features pictures and stories explaining how the animals are raised, as well as the farm’s philosophy.

Shoppers can browse through all the product line, then enter their choices in an online shopping cart, and then place an order and pay for it via credit card or PayPal.

“As I was sitting here, I had three orders come in. The online shopping cart is fantastic and it works really well for us,” said McDonald.

Once the order amounts for customers in Winnipeg, Portage or Brandon exceed $3,500 to $6,000, he loads the truck and delivers the frozen meat to a pre-arranged meeting place for customer pickup in a cooler-equipped trailer.

“I’m usually done and gone in half an hour,” said McDonald, who added almost all of his customers are families, and about half of them prepay online.

Different is better

Ian Grossart, who raises 90 head of forage-finished beef on his certified organic farm near Brandon, mainly sells locally from the farm gate.

In the 1990s, faced with the option of “getting big, or getting out,” he decided to switch to organic to boost his profit margins.

“Getting better, and getting different, appealed to me more,” said Grossart. “We’ve gone from using Roundup, Ralgro and Rumensin to aloe vera, kelp and compost.”

Having cattle on his organic farm means he can speed up the nutrient cycling process and turn a profit on a green manure crop by grazing it.

Raising beef the old-fashioned way has bolstered his conviction that he’s doing the right thing by raising healthier food, and he sees the results in positive feedback from his customers.

USDA literature from 1959, he said, states that a hamburger had 20 international units of vitamin A.

“In 2010, there’s none,” said Grossart. “People say we have the best science now and that ‘old is bad,’ but the nutrients in our food have in fact gone down.”

Lintott is excited by the long-term potential of the Canada-European Union free trade agreement, which could open up a new market for half a million head of hormone-free beef.

“Who has a protocol in place to service that market? It’s not the guy down the road who is producing commodity beef. He’s got hardly enough records to do his income taxes,” said Lintott, who added that in that respect, organic leads the way, followed by purebred breeders, and then the grass-fed beef association members.

Partnerships

Although it will be at least two years before CETA is signed, he is eager to start approaching buyers in the EU by working with Manitoba foreign trade representative for Western Europe Wolfgang Haufe.

But Haufe warned that trying to break into giant markets isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s best to start with smaller markets on the European periphery.

Once, in pursuit of a co-operation deal with a big German corporation, Haufe sent a basic outline of a potential agreement to the managing director and was later pleased to receive an invitation to meet in person.

“When I arrived, the managing director stood up, tore my paper in half, and said, ‘This, Mr. Haufe, is what I think of your proposal!’” said Haufe. “At that stage, I knew that this was not a partner for me.”

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